


Making It 'Ficial

by Calacious



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: A little angst, Family, Fluff, Happy Ending, Kid reasoning, M/M, Vague references to first season events, a marriage officiated by a kid, au set in the future
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-09
Updated: 2017-07-09
Packaged: 2018-11-29 17:17:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11445444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Calacious/pseuds/Calacious
Summary: Daryl tells the best stories, but Judith makes them better.





	Making It 'Ficial

**Author's Note:**

  * For [csi_sanders1129](https://archiveofourown.org/users/csi_sanders1129/gifts).



> Inspired by the following writing prompt given to me by a Camp NaNoWriMo cabin mate, NightmareWaffle: "It was an unusually quiet night. We thought we might finally get some sleep this time. Then at exactly 3am on the dot, they came..." and csi_sanders1129 who suggested the fandom. Thanks :-) Also, thanks for the summary!
> 
> Imperfect, and possibly way too fluffy, and sickly sweet (maybe).

"It was an unusually quiet night. We thought we might finally get some sleep this time. Then at exactly 3am on the dot, they came..."

"Who came?" Judith asked, her eyes were wide, hands clenched together in her lap as she leaned forward, eager to hear the rest of Daryl's story.

Daryl smiled and tapped Judith on the nose. He winked at the eager six year old, and shared a smile with Rick.

"The walkers," Daryl said, voice a low growl that made Judith's eyes grow wide with anticipation.

She tensed and held her breath, waiting for the inevitable happy ending, but knowing that she'd have to go through what her older brother, Carl, had termed the, 'horrible, no good, nasty parts'. Parts that, thank god, the little girl only had vague (if that) memories of from a few short years ago that seemed like a lifetime ago to Daryl.

Rick placed a hand on Daryl's lower back, and whispered, "You okay?" in his ear.

Nodding, Daryl leaned forward and reached out to tickle Judith who squealed in delight as she squirmed to get away. When she'd gotten a good distance away, with the help of her Dad holding Daryl back, Judith crossed her arms over her chest and raised an eyebrow.

"Then, what happened?" she asked, breathless, eyes taking on a determined look that Daryl recognized well. It was a look she shared with Rick and her brother.

"Then your daddy," Daryl took up the tale again as though a minor tickle war had not occurred a few seconds ago. He leaned against Rick, and reached for his lover's hand, needing the touch to ground him in the present. As much as Judith delighted in hearing these, 'monster' stories, they did take a toll on Daryl when he told them.

"What did daddy do?" Judith asked, gaze darting to her father before resting once again on the man she'd grown up thinking of as family.

"You know he's one of the bravest men in the world, right?" Daryl said.

Judith rolled her eyes and rocked forward on her knees. "I know daddy's the second bravest man in the world," she said.

Rick blinked and frowned. "Second bravest man?"

Judith nodded and pursed her lips. She threw her hands wide, clearly exasperated. "Daryl's the most bravest man, daddy, and you're the second most bravest." The, duh, was understood in her tone of voice.

Daryl hid a snicker(not very well if Rick's gentle smack on the back of Daryl's head was anything to go by) behind a hand and grinned at the little girl who beamed back at him.

"As I was saying..." Daryl cleared his throat, warming to the story and to the little girl who held a good portion of his heart in her tiny hands.

"The second bravest man in the world," Daryl amended, ignoring Rick's groan of protest, and Judith's delighted giggle as he continued the story of a time before Judith had been born, when they'd been half starved, hiding in cabins, before they'd made it to the prison, before true hell on earth had started for all of them, editing out the parts that were certain to give him and Rick, nightmares. Judith didn't have nightmares, and Daryl was going to make sure that she never did.

Judith was captivated by the story, and before the end of it, she had climbed up into Daryl's lap, wrapped one of his arms around her, hugging it for comfort. She rested her head against his chest and held onto her father's hand. Rick's other arm was wrapped around Daryl's shoulders. He twisted a strand of Daryl's hair between his fingers.

"And mommy really slapped daddy?" Judith asked, once Daryl had finished the tale, voice a whisper of awe as she craned her head to look at her father.

"She sure did," Rick said, laughing.

"Why'd she do that?" Judith asked, brow wrinkled in confusion.

"Because your daddy was a fool," Daryl said (leaving out the part where the man had almost died playing the hero) the words rolling easily off his tongue. He ignored the yank on his hair and Rick's half-hearted protest.

Judith nodded in acceptance of that explanation and traced the scars on her father's knuckles with an index finger. "He did a lot of foolish things, didn't he?" she asked, her eyes focused on the scars, lips bowed in a thoughtful frown.

"He sure did," Daryl said, pressing a kiss to the top of the little girl's head.

"But you love him anyway, and keep him safe, right?" Judith asked, tilting her head to peer up at Daryl through her bangs.

Smiling, Daryl nodded. "I sure do."

"And, daddy loves you?" she asked.

"Yes," Daryl answered, not sure where this line of questioning was going, and a little afraid of what Judith might say next.

"So, you're kind of like my new mommy, right?" Judith asked, a glint of something in her eyes.

"Uh...that's not really how it works, squirt," Rick said. "You see," Rick sputtered, his neck growing red and creeping up to the tips of his ears in a way that was endearing, "Daryl's not...that is, he's, well, he's..."

Sighing and shaking her head as though fed up with the both of them, Judith turned to look at her father, narrowing her eyes.

"I know he's not a girl, dad," she said, rolling her eyes dramatically.

She'd just started to master the art of eye rolling, and Daryl wasn't sure that was a good thing for her to master at such a young age; they had Carol to thank for that little bit of sarcastic genius, and Daryl was going to have a word, or several, with her about it just as soon as she returned from her 'diplomatic' trip to the north.

"But you love him, and he loves you, and I love both of you. Carl does, too, so, you should get married so that Daryl can be my mommy and slap you when you do foolish things...'ficially," she stumbled over the big word, but gave them both a wide smile.

"I..." Rick looked to Daryl, face completely scarlet, and eyes pleading with his lover to save him.

"We don't need something like marriage to make us 'ficial," Daryl said, reaching up to cup Rick's face. "We can be a family without all of that."

"Well, can you..." Judith bit her bottom lip and took a deep breath. "Can you be my, papa then?" she asked in a quiet voice. She was staring at her father's scars again, brow furrowed in concentration as she traced over the one on his thumb. A scar that Daryl well remembered Rick getting.

"I'd like that," Daryl said, his heart constricting.

"I'd like that, too," Rick said, giving Daryl a look filled with more love than Daryl really knew what to do with.

Judith lifted her head and relinquished her father's hand, placing it within Daryl's. Smiling at both of them she turned in Daryl's arms and wrapped her arms around the both of them, kissing Rick, and then Daryl on the cheek before clambering down from Daryl's lap to regard the both of them.

"Good," Judith said, standing on her tiptoes. "Now, kiss," she ordered imperiously, eyes twinkling.

Rick turned his hand over in Daryl's, eyes locked on their twined fingers, the fingers of his other hand had relinquished Daryl's hair in favor of squeezing Daryl's shoulder. "Jude, hon, you can't just..."

Groaning and, sharing an eye roll with Judith, who, for all intents and purposes, was his daughter in everything but blood, grasped Rick's face with his free hand and tugged until he was able to plant a proper kiss on the man's lips. Rick's eyes were wet, and filled with something that felt a little deeper than love, and the air left Daryl's lungs like he'd been sucker punched.

He'd loved Rick for a long time now, but until this moment -- Rick's lips, chapped yet soft and pliant beneath his; fingers digging, almost painfully into Daryl's shoulder; thumb rubbing across a scar that could not be masked by Rick's stubble -- Daryl hadn't realized just how much he loved Rick, or how much Rick loved him. They parted for air, and Daryl couldn't stop the way that his hands trembled.

"I love you," Rick whispered.

"Say you love daddy," Judith directed sweetly, eyes boring into Daryl.

Clearing his throat, Daryl stared at Rick's lips as he whispered, "I love you."

Judith clapped and squealed and threw her arms around their knees, squeezing tightly before releasing them.

"I now declare you husband and...husband," she said, altering the words of the marriage ceremony that she'd witnessed a little over a month ago for a couple that had recently befriended Rick and Daryl in the small town that they'd come to think of as home.

Daryl and Rick shared a look and then turned to Judith who had her hands clasped together in front of her. She was smiling so wide that her dimples were showing.

"Daddy and Papa," Judith said, nodding to each of them in turn. "May you live happily ever after together forever and always."

"C'm'ere, kiddo," Daryl said. He and Rick opened their arms for the little girl who immediately flung herself into them, hugging them both around the neck and giggling when each of them planted a kiss on each of her cheeks.

"Now you can 'ficially slap daddy when he does something foolish," Judith whispered into Daryl's ear, squirming and squealing in laughter when her father started tickling her.

"Hey," Rick said. "I might be only the second bravest man on earth, but I am not the most foolish," he defended.

Judith rolled her eyes and patted Rick on the cheek. "Sure you aren't, daddy."

Daryl laughed and kissed Rick before he could protest any further, keeping the fact that his daughter (their daughter) had her fingers crossed behind her back to himself. It would be their secret. The first, no doubt, of many, now that he and Rick were 'ficial and all.  

  
  



End file.
